


A mirror and the colours that come with it

by Anili_2



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Childhood Friends, Different Universes, Finding Love, Growing Up, I mean sort of, M/M, Opposites, USUK - Freeform, black and white vs colours, childhood magic, reconnecting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23054953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anili_2/pseuds/Anili_2
Summary: Arthur has always loved colours, but sometimes we find something gray in the most vibrant of places.Written for the usukustwiceperyear Opposites event!
Relationships: America/England (Hetalia)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	A mirror and the colours that come with it

We all have magical memories from our childhood. Things we remember vividly happening, but no one ever believed to be real. Kids have a wild imagination after all. Sometimes we start thinking like others and just blame the memories on child's games, but sometimes we guard those memories to keep them as our own little secret treasures. It's those treasures that help us push through hard times by being a reminder of the wonders around us. 

Arthur Kirkland had always been an imaginative child who loved fairy tales, something his older brothers often teased him about, but amongst all his memories of playing in the woods or parks with whichever magical creature he had last learned about, stood one memory above all others. Every year their parents would send the boys out of the city to visit their grandparents for a few weeks. Arthur loved the country house dearly and had always thought the surrounding countryside to be one of the most magical places on Earth. Everything seemed to be more alive and the colours were more vibrant than in the city. However, his absolute favourite spot on the premise was by a mirror hidden in a corner by multiple boxes around it on the attic. Had the mirror been just any old mirror the spot wouldn't have been anywhere near his top spots, but the mirror gave him a friend and he wasn't one to forget those who he held close to his heart. 

On one of the summers he remembered the best, he had been following his nanna around the house, listening eagerly on the stories she had to tell of the place, when she took him to the attic. Before then he hadn't been allowed there for he was said to be too small. Arthur was beyond excited and happily started exploring the new area under his nanna's watch. It was then that he caught a glimpse of the mirror, but was forced to leave before he could really inspect it. What he managed to see in it had caught him by surprise. That night Arthur had been unable to stop thinking about what he had seen, so like any curious young boy he took a flashlight and his companion soft animal, a mint green bunny with a red-white-and-blue striped bow around its neck, and snuck his way to the attic while everyone else slept. He didn't dare to light his light until he got to the attic, feeling brave against the dark but afraid to wake anyone up. The dark hallway felt longer for a child in the darkness and he held his bunny close, but managed to do this trip in silence. Finding the mirror took a little longer, but eventually he managed to squeeze himself to it from between the boxes. Wanting his hands free, Arthur placed the flashlight one one of the boxes so that it still lighted him and planted his bunny on the floor.

The nervous little adventure through the hallway was definitely worth it the moment his eyes landed on the mirror. Despite having the light with him and thus being able to see around himself clearly, he didn't see himself in the mirror at all. Arthur walked over to it and touched the surface with his hand only to feel the cold surface of the mirror. He looked into it and realised he didn't recognise the room reflected in it at all. What he saw wasn't his lit up spot surrounded by dusty boxes, but a bedroom. He could see a bed, a dresser and a corner of a carpet. The little boy spent a while looking into the mirror in silence. Sleep started slowly pulling him into its embrace, only to run away as something moved in the mirror. Arthur's eyes snapped wide open and soon ended up meeting the eyes of another young boy. 

Both felt surprised by the other's appearance and jumped back some, but after the initial surprise were pulled right back to the mirror. Arthur was excited by the prospect of experiencing something so magical. It wasn't until he really took in the amazed look on the other boy's face that he realised there were no colours in the mirror world. He glanced down at himself. His pyjamas were still the same blue they were before and a look over at his bunny showed that there was nothing wrong with his eyes, but even then the boy in the mirror stayed looking like someone out of one of those black-and-white movies his grandparents loved watching. This boy wasn't just a movie character though. Arthur waved at him, which made the boy smile wider than before as his lips started moving excitedly. 

"I can't hear you," Arthur said in response, but realised that the opposite would also be the case. Thus he ended up shaking his head and trying to motion that he couldn't hear the other. This seemed to work as the boy started making wide arm movements to explain himself, though Arthur understood nothing of it. He couldn't help but laugh at all the weird faces and wild gestures this weird boy was doing. After many rounds of the weird charades they used to communicate, both boys were yawning so much that Arthur wanted to head to bed. He waved at the boy, but motioned that he would be back. The other boy nodded and soon disappeared from the mirror. 

After that night Arthur took to spending as much time in the attic as he could. He and the boy communicated via notepads, be it by writing to their best abilities or by drawing pictures. It was because of the notepads that he learned the boy's name, Alfred. Arthur took to having anything colourful with himself up there so that he could teach Alfred all the colours that he knew and was delighted to see how excited the boy always got when he showed him a new one. It was kinda weird to peek into the black-and-white world, but eventually it just became a part of Alfred. He did wonder whether or not he would lose all of his colours as well or would Alfred get colours, if either of them would go through the mirror. However those were questions he couldn't get an answer to as the surface of the mirror stayed as cold and hard as always. Whenever Arthur told his nanna of his new friend, she seemed to think him to have made yet another imaginary friend, which upset Arthur enough to make him stop talking about Alfred almost completely. 

The two boys got to meet during three summers before Arthur's nanna's death put a stop to the countryside visits as his grandpa didn't feel like hosting the four brothers on his own. When he learned that they wouldn't be going to the countryside, Arthur had been devastated. Alfred had grown to be one of his closest friends despite the two not meeting that often. As they had grown up, both had learned new things and gotten better at writing so communicating had gotten much easier. Knowing Alfred would be left waiting alone, only for him to not show up at all, had Arthur crying and angry for weeks. Not that anyone really knew why he was so mad, seeing as they didn't believe in or know of Alfred like the youngest in the family did. 

As the years passed by, Arthur did his best to keep his memory of Alfred alive. He knew the boy to be just as real as him, even if their meetings would have sounded made up were he to tell anyone of them. Once he learned about colouring once black-and-white pictures, he started looking more into it. No matter how long it was since he last saw Alfred, Arthur had never stopped to think what he would look like in colour. Of course he had his own ideas, but trying to find more accurate matches was very exciting to him and made the separation from his friend a lot easier. 

You can imagine the joy Arthur felt when he was allowed to go spend his summer in the country. His grandpa preferred to be left alone, but after assuring him he wouldn't be a bother the young man had been given permission to come and enjoy the silence. The first peak of happiness dissipated while Arthur was on his way and was replaced by fear as he realised the situation he was in. It had been years since he last went, what if Alfred would have started to hate him? Would the other bo-man resent him because of his sudden disappearance? Many painful scenarios flipped through his mind until the worst one of all stabbed through his heart. What if Alfred wouldn't be there at all? Maybe they had moved or maybe Alfred had deemed the mirror unnecessary and thrown it away? Nothing in his life before this had made him this anxious and thus Arthur found himself unable to go to the attic on the first day like he had originally planned to. 

Much like the first time he had gotten a glimpses of the mirror, Arthur was yet again unable to sleep. He was still afraid of what he would find, but realised it would be better to take care of it now rather than taking his time and torturing himself like this. Once again he grabbed his flashlight with him, though by now he didn't need his bunny anymore and it was replaced by a notepad and a pen, and made his way to the attic quiet as a mouse. Much to Arthur's delight the mirror stood exactly where he remembered last seeing it. He was too big to crawl his way through the boxes anymore, but was able to move them so that he could make his way to the mirror. He placed the flashlight aside just like he did on the first night, but unlike that time he now knew what should lay within the reflective surface. 

The moment he saw the black-and-white world an immense sense of relief flashed through him. Yes he had believed it all to be real, but a part of him had always been a little unsure. Now as he looked into the mirror and could see the lack of his reflection in it, everything just felt much more real than when he had to stay away from it. At first he thought the view to be the same, but as he inspected it more he could see that the room was definitely messier than he remembered it being, but also had an all together different furniture in it. Had Alfred sold the mirror after all? Disappointment started setting in until he spotted a drawing on the wall amongst other posters. The drawing was of two little boys smiling hand in hand, a drawing he remembered Alfred being so proud of despite touching being an impossible dream to them. Just the sight of that one messy drawing was enough to bring tears to his eyes. He hadn't been forgotten! A new hope settled in his mind as he sat down in front of the mirror, doing his best to hold in his tears. It took all his willpower not to tear up again the second he realised someone was sleeping on the bed. At first all the clothes everywhere had distracted him from spotting the body amongst it all, but the form shifting its position caught his notice. Arthur felt his breath caught in his throat as he tried to be as silent as possible, which was silly when he knew no one could hear him on the other side. He never had really understood how Alfred always happened to find his way to the mirror at the same time, since neither had ever been left waiting for long, but once again his graytoned friend proved himself to be magical as he sat up, though clearly having woken up from a dream. At first it seemed like the young man was too tired to register what he saw and that gave Arthur a good window to taking in the changes his friend had gone through. 

All traces of the baby fat that once was there were gone, making room for muscle and toned shapes. Actually, there seemed to be almost no sign of the little boy he had known, but a gut feeling told him this was his Alfred. Arthur felt himself flush slightly as it became apparent that the other man slept without a shirt and quickly forced himself to look back at the other's face, which seemed to have found his by now as well. Feeling awkward in his seated position, Arthur stood up again and dared a small wave to the man in the mirror. What followed said wave took him by surprise. Alfred seemed to completely wake up at the sight of it, but stumbled on his way off his bed and managed to get tangled up in his sheets in his hurry to get to the mirror. Seeing his friend making a fool of himself like so made all the anxiousness in Arthur's stomach start to slowly dissipate away. He couldn't help but laugh out of relief and at how silly Alfred's stumbling looked. By the time he managed to calm down Alfred stood right by the mirror, looking at him like he was the eighth wonder of the world. His laughter died on his lips as the nervousness from before came back ten fold. It didn't help that Alfred was still shirtless. Arthur quickly picked up his writing utensils and made a note telling the other to put a shirt on. He wasn't about to go through all this and have to look at some shirtless hot man, there was enough emotions to sort through as it was. Luckily Alfred quickly found himself a shirt to put on, having flushed some himself at realising his own state of undress. 

With both of them dressed and awake the reunion felt a little awkward. Arthur had planned what he wanted to say, but now that he stood here his mind stayed blank. What do you say to friend you just stopped seeing for years? He was racking his brain for something to write, when Alfred started writing. 

'So, what did you do this year?' The simple question stared back at him, just like it had all those years ago. Arthur couldn't help the sad smile that took to his lips as he lifted his head to look at Alfred's face and the curious small smile that resided on it. 

'It's a long story.' 

'Then you better start telling it.' 

Just like that the two settled down by the mirror, writing notes for the other to read that summarised their lives for the years they were apart. A sense of familiarity and warmth started spreading through Arthur's body the more they got to talk. Being able to see Alfred's animated expressions and motions again made him realise just how much he missed his gray toned friend. He had met a lot of new people as he grew up, but none who he could allow himself to relax with as easily as with Alfred. Now stronger than ever, the wish to see the young man in colour rose its head and twisted in his stomach. There was something exciting about being able to imagine all kinds of colours replacing the grays, whites and blacks he saw. Alfred was truly gorgeous even as he was, so adding colour to it all would certainly be enough to make Arthur's mind melt. The thought of colour on the man made him yearn for so much more. Would he be one of those people who were always warm to touch? What would he smell like? What would his name sound like coming from those lips? Would his laughter fill the room in the same way his smile warmed up Arthur's whole being? All the thoughts and possibilities were starting to be too much for the brit to handle, especially after such a long day. It seemed that his overwhelmed state was obvious enough for Alfred to notice, as the man paused his scribbling to write a much shorter note. 

'Everything ok?' 

'Yes. I'm just tired, traveled the whole day.' Arthur could see Alfred hesitating before he wrote his next note. Maybe the man was worried he would disappear on him again? Arthur smushed the hope immediately. He knew Alfred cared about him, but he shouldn't go overboard with these new hopes of how much. 

'You should go to bed then, Art.' At first it seemed as if that was all there was to it, but Alfred was fast in adding another line to the note. 'I'll see you in the morning, right?' The hopeful look that accompanied the note made Arthur's heart skip a beat and he hoped the flashlight wasn't bright enough to show the small blush he knew to be on his face. He nodded while writing his own response. It wasn't the first time he was sort of thankful their conversations happened through notes, seeing as it was much harder for slip ups to happen when you had to write each thought down. Had they been talking, a pet name might have slipped its way past him, but seeing as they weren't he was able to keep such things to himself. 

'I'll see you in the morning, Alfred. I promise.'

Had he not been traveling that day, Arthur knew he wouldn't have been able to sleep. Knowing he would see Alfred again soon and having felt so much within a short period of time had tired him out more than he had thought, thus making him fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. 

In the morning Arthur had a rush within himself to go back to the mirror, but it was controlled by a need to look and feel presentable before he put himself in front of Alfred again. All that lead to him finding the exact person he wanted to look presentable for curled up in a pile of blankets, still fast asleep right where he had left him, and thankfully still with his shirt on. Arthur felt his heart swell in his chest at the sight. He settled down in front of the mirror like the night before with everything he brought, wondering if the man would wake up like he did during the night. This time though, he could see Alfred's shades way better with the light shining in both in his world and in the mirror world. Seeing as the sleeper showed no signs of waking up, Arthur took the time to really take in the Alfred's shades and to compare them to the notes he had gathered during his research on colouring black-and-white photos. Yes it might have been a little weird, but it wasn't like he could do much else either. Alfred couldn't hear him and he couldn't touch him either so he was left with having to wait for the man to wake up on his own. 

Arthur moved a little closer to the mirror so he wouldn't have to lean in as much. It soon became apparent that Alfred was more tan than him, but that wasn't exactly a surprise when one kept in mind just how pale the englishman could be. Alfred's shirt could be blue, the blanket just black, his hair maybe blond and his eyes… The moment Arthur realised just how close he had gotten to the mirror was the same when he saw Alfred returning his look with an amused grin toying with his lips. Arthur sat up straight and scooted back a little as soon as he could, face red from being caught inspecting the other like this. His reaction seemed to please his companion as Alfred started laughing. Alfred's next note wasn't any more funny to Arthur than the joke that had been pulled on him either. 

'That's what you get for disappearing on me.' Arthur rolled his eyes and closed the notebook he had been using for colour references and notes in order to pick up the one he used to communicate with Alfred. Honestly, had he not yearned to be able to read back on their conversations, he would have gotten a marker board for these meetings. 

'I thought you understood what lead to that?' 

'Oh I did, but it still hurt and I missed you. SO, I get to have my fun.' 

It was nice to know he had been missed and that was just enough to make Arthur forgive Alfred for now. Not that he had ever been able to hold a grudge against the other for long, and now even less so with guilt still weighing him down. 

'Do you like my face so much that you couldn't keep yourself away?' Now that was something he hadn't expected to be asked. While yes, Alfred was extremely attractive and Arthur's type, that hadn't been the main reason for the inspection and thus Arthur wasn't going to give the other the satisfaction of being right. 

'I was merely trying to imagine you in colour.' 

'So you don't like what you see?' This time Alfred highlighted his note by pressing his face against the mirror like a child making faces in a window. Arthur couldn't hold back his snort at the stupid faces the other was making and lifted his hand to tap at where Alfred's forehead was, despite knowing full well it wouldn't really do anything. 

Only this time he felt something warm underneath his fingers instead of the cold mirror surface. Just like that the atmosphere changed completely. Both pulled back like they'd gotten electrocuted by the touch and they might as well have been. Alfred lifted a hand to touch his forehead where Arthur's finger had just been while Arthur looked at said finger. Soon the duo scooted closer to their respective mirrors again, both looking at the other with the same hope shining in their eyes. Alfred was the first one to press his hand against the mirror, leaving it there to wait. Arthur was a bit more hesitant, but pressed his hand on the same spot where Alfred's resided and felt his heart flip in his chest when he could feel the warmth again. His heartbeat accelerated slightly when he felt and saw Alfred's fingers lace themselves between his, thus giving him a glimpse of the usually gray skin in colour. Not that he had a lot of time to look at the hand before he found himself lying on the floor underneath and against a very real, warm and heavy body. Had the situation been anything else, he would have been very annoyed, but being as it was Arthur found himself returning the tight hug. It was moments later that Alfred pulled back enough to let him see his face and in that moment the englishman found himself in love with a colour way more than he ever thought possible. A teary laugh escaped him as he brought a hand to Alfred's cheek so that he could see he was actually touching something real. 

"Your eyes are blue."


End file.
